


The Doris Purkiss Haters

by lamerezouille



Series: A Weird Pairing Experience [7]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-12-17
Updated: 2012-12-17
Packaged: 2017-11-21 09:19:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 882
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/596073
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lamerezouille/pseuds/lamerezouille
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In which people and feelings are hiding in plain sight.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Doris Purkiss Haters

**Author's Note:**

> Part 7 of the [Weird Pairing Experience](http://lamerezouille.livejournal.com/12208.html). This one was long coming because I had difficulty wrapping my head around it, but here it is!

Luna was strolling around Diagon Alley, not bothering anyone and minding her own business. She was being very careful to skip every third cobble not to bother the Dandeloops sleeping there, so much so that she didn’t sense someone approaching her—even if the woman in question had her head completely surrounded by wrackspurts.

‘Oh! The little Lovegood girl! You’re her, aren’t you?’ The woman boomed, grabbing Luna by the arm very rudely. It did nothing to redeem her in Luna’s eyes; being called the “little Lovegood girl” at age twenty-six was already something she disliked very much.

‘You remember me, don’t you?’ The woman went on, her wrinkled hand still clenched around Luna’s forearm. ‘I did an interview for your father a little while ago. Doris, Doris Purkiss.’

Luna had a personal rule to always give the benefit of the doubt to people, to always at least try to like them on principle.

Doris Purkiss? She would have to be the exception to this rule. Not only did Luna remember her _very well_ , she could also affirm without a shadow of a doubt that Doris Purkiss was a lying, conniving witch. And “a little while ago” was more accurately qualified as more than a decade, but that was beside the point.

Luna regretted bitterly coming to Diagon Alley that day.

Doris Purkiss seemed unfortunately to be taking Luna’s silence as confusion because she felt the need to clarify: ‘I was the one who told the truth about Stubby! Well, the one the ignorant people thought was Sirius Black, but who’s in fact Stubby Boardman. I told the truth in your father’s paper, but I don’t think people really believed me. Fools, they all are! But _we_ both know the truth, don’t we?’

Luna hated this woman’s ranting, but she hated the way she spoke to her as if they _shared_ something—as if they were _friends_ —even more.

‘My father’s paper is _my_ paper now, and I’ll never publish anything you have to say in it,’ Luna said, trying to stay calm. ‘You’re a liar and a cheat and please don’t ever talk to me again,’ she finished, her voice stonily cold.

Luna Disapparated on the spot, knowing she’d have to come back later to buy the gardening supplies she needed and had come for in the beginning.

She stormed into her flat in a snit and didn’t even think of taking off her shoes, her cloak and her protective enchantments against nargles.

‘I can’t believe it!’ She exclaimed, picturing in her head Doris Purkiss’s _so_ satisfied smile. ‘The nerve of this woman!’

‘Wow, Luna, calm down,’ she heard Sirius’s soothing voice say behind her. ‘What got your wand in a twist, Sweetheart?’

‘Oh, nothing, just Doris _I-was-having-a-romantic-dinner-with-Stubby-Boardman_ Purkiss, that’s who!’

Luna never got this angry; the heat on her cheeks and the clench of her jaw felt barely bearable. She wanted to hit something, to just let it out, but it was so incongruous, she had no idea _how_.

Sirius’s warm arms slid around her waist and she could already feel her anger abate minutely.

‘Shh, shh. You very well know it’s not true, don’t you? And I bet she was full of wack-sports—’

‘Wrackspurts,’ Luna corrected feebly.

‘—wasn’t she?’ Sirius went on, ‘There’s no need to get so upset over that, is there?’

Luna turned around in his embrace and his smile helped put her more at ease, like it did so often. Her heart was still beating stronger than usual, though.

‘It’s just... You _were_ hiding as Stubby Boardman, and most of what was said in this article was true...’

She knew she was almost whining, and that it was far from attractive, but Sirius didn’t seem to mind. He settled one hand on her shoulder and the other on her cheek, his thumb lightly stroking her bottom lip.

‘But I never had any romantic dinner or _anything_ with her, and you know it. And even if I had, it was so far in the past, you know it wouldn’t matter anymore, don’t you?’

His eyes were boring into hers and she knew what he said was true. She knew it rationally and she knew it in the way her heartbeats and her body synchronised themselves with the way he looked at her.

‘I love you,’ he said softly, but loud enough that she wouldn’t have any doubt he’d said it.

‘I love you too, but it’s just that everybody could know about Doris Purkiss’s fake romantic dinner with Stubby Boardman, but nobody can know about you and me because you’re still supposed to be _dead_ and there’s only Harry and Ron and Hermione who know too, and—’ She cut herself off, realising belatedly what had just happened.

She lifted her head from where it rested on his chest and looked him in the eyes.

‘You...you love me?’

Sirius was smiling one of his youngest smiles and suddenly there was no Doris Purkiss anymore, no secret they had to keep, and no fake death to bother them. There was Sirius and there was Luna, and it was enough.

‘And you love me too,’ Sirius said, with a light tremor in his voice.

Luna rolled her eyes. ‘Of course I do,’ she said. And then she kissed him.  



End file.
